The Forgotten Freelancers
by TheForgottenSpartan3
Summary: Agent Nebraska, West Virginia, and Kansas were all from project Freelancer, meant to quell the Insurrection. But what happens when something worst than that happens? One where a whole planet is at risk?


**AN: So… I'm a newbie at RvB lore, so as I brush up on that, feel free to correct any of the canon-centered mistakes I've made, if any, in a respectful way.**

 **Agent Nebraska, one of the three OC Freelancers I'm introducing, will have my armor from Halo Reach, but a slightly modified version; Khaki & Red with the CQC helmet.**

 **Oh, and who else finds South to be an incredibly bitchy Freelancer? She was one of the most annoying when I watched it.**

 **Agent Nebraska**

Agent Nebraska lay on a med table, his lithe form covered in armor save for the chestpiece. A doctor was leaning over him, tending to his wounds. "She hit you puh-retty hard, huh?" chuckled the medic, wrapping a couple of bandages over Nebraska's bare chest. Blood soaked through the bandages, staining the once-pristine white substance into a crimson red.

"Where does it hurt more?" asked the man, gently pressing on multiple pressure points on the front of Nebraska's stomach and ribs. The medic gingerly prodded the lower rib, and Nebraska visibly twitched involuntarily. "There it is!" smiled the doctor, grabbing more bandages. "Now, you took mild trauma to most of your torso," explained the medic, "but where the skin was ruptured is the most important place, as we need to cover it in disinfectant, then wrap it up."

The man, who was sitting on a chair, leaned over, grabbing something from his medkit. He pulled back up, his blonde hair, which was neatly combed before, now a mess. "This should do the trick," he squeezed the bottle, but nothing came out. "Dang it. I think a have another around here," he muttered, placing the bottle on the floor next to the medkit, rummaging around. "Here we are," Nebraska heard the man mutter. The medic sat straight up, a bottle the exact same as before in his hand. He squeezed it and a clear liquid came out onto his hand. "You may want to suck in air, since this'll sting quite a bit," he warned.

Agent Nebraska nodded in acknowledgement, bracing himself. The stinging sensation felt incredibly painful for him, as if a combat knife had punctured his lungs, but he had learned in the program to ignore pain, so he simply sucked in a short breath of air silently, showing no larger signs of pain.

"Done!" grinned the medic, pulling his hand away and toward the sink.

The agent stared at the medic through his faceplate, studying him. "Great fight, today – just don't try running into enemies like that," grinned the doctor, looking back at Nebraska and finding the thought obviously comedic. Nebraska's hand twitched at the memory of the fight that had taken minutes prior.

 **Memory**

 **An Hour and a Half Prior**

"Hey, new kid!" called a voice from a table to Nebraska. They were all in the mess hall, eating their lunch with all the fellow soldiers of the UNSC _Mother of Invention_ (I cannot say how much I love that name!). New kid is what they had taken to calling Nebraska, as he was technically the newest Freelancer in the project – and so far the last one on the list for AI implants.

Nebraska's head snapped up from where he was looking, in this case being scanning the room for open seats. He looked towards the direction of the voice to see North Dakota – the dark purple Freelancer had saved a seat for him.

Silently, Nebraska seemingly glided over to the seat, gaining attention from a lot of the ODST crew members. He reached the spot to find North with another Freelancer, South Dakota if his memory served him correctly.

South had her helmet off, rapidly eating the lunch that they had been served, only giving Nebraska a quick, slightly arrogant, glance. The aforementioned Freelancer looked at both of the twins calmly, as if he had been looking at a garden instead of two highly-lethal military operatives. "So, Nebraska, right?" asked North.

The agent nodded, looking down at his food. "Any partners?" asked North, seemingly noticing the awkwardness of the situation. Nebraska merely shook his head no, glancing up. Suddenly, there was some sort of commotion near at the front of the mess hall.

Nebraska looked over at the aforementioned area, seeing two Freelancers, Carolina and Texas, standing up, looking like they'd attack each other. _More like Carolina would rip out Texas' throat_ , Nebraska thought, thinking the aqua Freelancer was being highly unprofessional. He strained his ears to hear their conversation. "You, me, training room in fifteen minutes," Carolina growled. He saw Texas nod casually, as if she had been asked to hold a coffee mug for a second instead of fist-fighting the second-best Freelancer.

"I'm going in there," Nebraska heard the voice of South spat behind him. "You sure?" he heard North ask, "Those are the top two Freelancers, right there."

"And I can use that to get to the top of the leaderboard," retorted South, picking up her helmet, and getting up testily. _I could use the practice_ , thought Nebraska. He sat up, ignoring his food, and grabbed South's arm as she walked by. "I'm joining," he said simply. Both North and South seemed surprised that he had chosen to speak.

"Alright then, new kid," shrugged South loftily.

 **0-0-0**

"You will be fighting in pairs," the Director's voice sounded over the comms, "Agent South and Agent Texas, you two will be team A. Agent Carolina and Agent Nebraska, you two will form team B. You got that, FILSS?"

"Yes, Director," the pleasant robotic voice sounded. Nebraska walked over to Carolina's side, getting in a defensive position. South was already next to Texas, but still shot her some glares. Then a loud ringing sound entered Nebraska's ears, and then the match began.

Carolina immediately went for Texas, keeping her occupied. South, seeing that her two mortal enemies were already engaged in combat, decided to test Nebraska.

She swung a kick at the recruit, expecting easy prey. The aforementioned agent was hit in the side of the head with South's armor-plated shin, but no sound of pain left his lips as he pinwheeled into a wall. "Ooo, that's not good for the new kid," he heard someone, probably North, mutter.

South ran up to him, and threw him into the floor, pinning him down. "What's the matter, kid? Forgot how to fight?" she gloated cockily, Nebraska's body going limp. "You did," he responded quickly, then with a surge of strength, threw South in the exact same spot she had slammed him into, and then pinned her to the wall. "Damn it, South!" he heard somebody mutter, sure it was North this time.

He had to admit that South was fairly strong, which was a given if she could kick 800 pounds of armor 10 feet. She was struggling, but Nebraska kept her arms and head against the wall. "Son of a bitch!" he heard South shouting on her external speakers. "Only gloat when you're sure you won," grunted Nebraska. "I'll gloat when I want!" retorted South, with a surge of strength shoving Nebraska off.

The young recruit used his momentum to roll back onto his feet. He had been trained in speed, to use it to confuse the enemy. His armor was designed around this core theme, and he would be sure to use it. "Come here!" shouted South, lunging at the younger Freelancer.

Nebraska could tell that this was not a fully impulsive move, as South had angled her body in a way that would allow her to roll onto her feet quickly if he deflect or dodged, so he did what she wouldn't expect. He leapt upwards, his armor giving him enough strength to reach about ten feet up. He used his armor's thruster packs to stay in the air for a second, then dropped at the exact moment. "Oh, sh-" South's curse was cut off as she was curtly slammed in to the floor with Nebraska's weight on top of her.

"My goodness, chap!" he heard Wyoming, his distinctive and stereotypical British accent making his voice clear and recognizable. South wasn't done yet, though, as she jumped upwards, throwing Nebraska off.

This caught the young recruit off-guard, causing him to fall on his back onto the hard metal.

"Not so high and mighty now, huh?" laughed South loftily. "May I remind you that you have to work as a _team_ , and not an individual?" the comms carried the Director's voice. Nebraska acknowledged this, flipped to his feet, then sprinting towards where Carolina and Texas were caught in a grapple.

"Keep South off me, and I'll take care of Texas!" shouted Carolina between grunts of exertion. "So… what we were doing before. Got it," Nebraska heard South say sarcastically before she tried to slam his helmet off.

Of course, Nebraska had seen this coming and flipped backwards, effectively dodging the knee that was formerly on a course for his visor by millimeters. South tried kicking him in the gut, but Nebraska ducked under the attempt, and pushed her leg upward, throwing her off balance.

"Woah-oah-oah!" she exclaimed as she toppled over, rolling when she hit the ground. Nebraska took this as his moment to stop being on the defense, and go on the offense. He charged at South, his arm lowered in a protective position over his helmeted head. As he was about to hit her, she did something he didn't see, but he felt his elbow connecting to something hard.

Something hit him in the chest and head hard, break a couple of ribs for sure, and knocking him onto the ground. Before everything went black, he felt his helmet roll off his head.


End file.
